Soundproof now or never, Broward tells Dania homeowners near airport

In retaliation for the city's renewed litigation over the airport-runway expansion, Broward County is limiting Dania homeowners' participation in a free soundproofing program, city officials say.

County officials say they're just reverting to a prior decision that went into play after the Dania Beach City Commission rejected a hard-fought settlement that had put to rest 18 years of intense legal battles between the city and county.

"It is not retaliation at all," Broward Aviation Director Kent George said. "Unfortunately, Dania has chosen this path, the county hasn't."

At issue is expansion at theFort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airportwhich would expose nearly 2,500 Dania residents to sound levels deemed incompatible with residential use. Construction began in January on a new $790-million south runway.

About 1,700 homes in the highest-noise area are eligible for soundproofing, which the county is doing in waves of about 80 homes at a time.

The eligible homeowners are now being told that if they decline to soundproof their homes the first time around, they won't get another chance.

"They decided to play hardball with the residents of Dania Beach because we resumed litigation," City Commissioner Anne Castro said. "It's either do it on our timeline or not at all. That's an ultimatum, and that's never good."

Last year's unique settlement between Dania and the county disintegrated when the Federal Aviation Administration failed to approve cash payments to homeowners in the high-noise zone. Under that plan, 856 homeowners would have been eligible for payments equal to 20 percent of their homes' values if they gave up their rights to sue.

The city nixed the settlement on May 22 and filed a federal lawsuit the next day against theU.S. Army Corps of Engineersfor granting a permit to fill wetlands for the runway.

At a Tuesday hearing, the city will seek to halt construction of the runway which is slated to open in September 2014.

The city also renewed a state court lawsuit, but no hearings have yet been scheduled in that case.

Giving homeowners a second chance to participate in soundproofing was explicitly delineated in the settlement that Dania voided, George said, not in the FAA decision that the county is now operating under.

But Castro says the prior decision gives the county wide discretion and it is now limiting soundproofing because they can, not because they have to.

Neal McAliley, an attorney hired by Dania to negotiate the airport settlement, agreed.

"They totally have discretion to offer soundproofing to people more than once, this is a discretionary choice on their part."